Cam made no move to leave the exam room. “Why don’t you wait out front? It’ll just take me a minute.”“Huh-uh. What if you fainted? And hit your head? I am not taking the chance that anything will happen to you.”“Fine.” She dressed quickly. Cam paid the doctor’s bill and escorted her—heck he practically carried her—to his truck. The sun burned her eyes. She slipped on her sunglasses.About halfway home, Cam said, “When I heard you’d passed out and were nauseous, I thought…maybe you were pregnant.”Domini froze.“I know we haven’t been married long, but if it’d turned out you were pregnant, I…well, I wouldn’t have minded. Not at all. I just wanted you to know.”She faced out the window. She had to tell him the truth.And if Cam decides to walk away?She loved him. Now she knew the true meaning of selfishness because she didn’t know if she could let him go.Cam tucked Domini in bed, called the station and requested a couple of sick days. He jotted down a grocery list. He paced until it
“There are gonna be a million people there,” Cam warned. “And my family will grill both of us on our marriage, if we’re gonna start havin’ kids—”Her stomach knotted, but she tossed out a breezy, “Maybe they won’t, since we already have a kid.”Anton and Gracie burst into the kitchen. “Is it time to go yet?”Domini gave Cam a we-don’t-want-to-disappoint-Anton look.Cam sighed. “Fine. But if you look the slightest bit faint, we’re comin’ home and I’m tyin’ you to the bed for a solid week.”She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. Her lips slid to his ear and she whispered, “Is that a promise, Deputy?”“Yep.”“Good because I miss that side of you. You’ve been too careful with me lately. You know I won’t break.”He eased back to look at her face. “Domini, I—”“Are you two gonna suck face or are we going?”“Suck face. Definitely.” Cam teased his mouth over hers and her heart jumped.“Yuck. We’re outta here.” The sliding glass door slammed.Domini stepped back. “We’ll be lucky if any of t
Domini and Skylar turned.Chassie shifted her roly-poly baby boy from one hip to the next. One chubby hand gripped Chassie’s long braid. “Westin, honey, let go of mama’s hair.”He cooed, blinked enormous hazel eyes and blew a big spit bubble.“Blowing me kisses won’t charm me, buddy boy.” She kissed the top of his blond head and attempted to pry his fingers off her braid.“Need some help?” Domini asked.“It’d be great if you’d distract him.”Domini made goofy faces. Poked his round belly until he giggled while Chassie freed her hair.“Thanks.” She smooched Westin’s plump cheek. “You should show Domini how good you are at giving kisses.”“I’ll take a kiss,” she said, leaning in. She caught a whiff of powdery baby smell as Westin’s cool mouth connected with her cheek, leaving a drooly wet mark. She laughed and looked up to see Cam staring at her.The soft, wistful look in his eyes caused her to break eye contact. Caused her stomach to lurch with dread. Caused an immense amount of guilt.
“Right now?”“Yes. I didn’t want to do this here, with your family around but I have to do it before I lose my nerve.”Cursing, Cam dragged her around the corner of the house, out of sight. He braced her spine against the trunk of an old oak tree and framed her face in his hands, not saying a word, just watching her with those dark blue eyes.Domini attempted to push him back because he was crowding her, but he didn’t allow it. “Talk.”“I haven’t been…honest about something. Something big. Something that will probably change everything between us.”“What?”Breathe. Own up to it. Just say it straight out like he would. “You know that scar on my abdomen?”He nodded guardedly.“It’s not from getting my appendix taken out. It’s from getting my uterus taken out.” Domini detailed the short version of her medical history. She finished by saying; “I know I should’ve told you I can’t have children before you married me. I’m sorry. It was selfish. You deserve better, Cam. You deserve more. You
Figure it out.“Why so glum chum?” Cam asked from the bottom of the stairs. “Why aren’t you playing games with the rest of your—” cousins, but Cam amended it to, “—buddies?”Anton didn’t look up. “I don’t know how to throw a rope. How to hook something with a rope. How to tie something up with a rope. I don’t know how to do any of that ranch and cowboy stuff.”“That’s all they’re doin’?”“No. There was a foot race. I got third. Colt got first and Ky got second.”Cam bit back a groan. Colt’s competitive streak would never go away. “Third is damn good.”Anton finally looked at him. “You really think so?”“Sure. What other games does Grama have planned?”“Some pin chaps on the cowboy for the little kids and a three-legged race.”Cam’s stomach did a loop-de-loop. Anything but that. He managed, “Do you want to enter that one?”“Yeah, but Domini’s sick and she can’t do it.”Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. You will fall on your ass and embarrass yourself in front of your entire family.Bu
“You in pain now?”“Yeah.”“How bad?”“It’s been worse.”Domini rattled off a Russian phrase.Hell, she only swore in Russian when she was really pissed. He attempted to remove his stump from her hands. “Let me do this. I…you know my family ain’t ever seen me—”“Vulnerable?” she supplied. “The injured war hero Cameron McKay has a chip on his shoulder the size of his missing leg, when it comes to letting his family see his stump.”Cam’s mouth dropped open in shock.But his wife wasn’t finished. “I can see how you’d hate all the love, support and help they’ve offered you. That has to suck.”“Domini—”She got right in his face. “I understand that you don’t want to show your stump to the world at large. But these people—” she gestured to the group watching them very closely from afar, “—aren’t the world at large. They care about you. They always have, they always will. What don’t you get about that?”“You sent Keely away,” he pointed out.“I’m not talking about Keely. Besides, if I wouldn
“I never meant to hurt any of you.”“But you did.”“I’m sorry.”“I know you are. And I forgive you even when I still want to paddle your butt.” She kissed his forehead. “But it needed to be said.”He owed her more than a perfunctory I’m sorry. He owed his entire family more than that.“Being kicked around by my family when I’ve been down today has been a good thing, believe it or not.” He smiled at Domini. “I don’t want to go back to being the man I was because some changes are for the better.”“That’s good to hear and I’m happy for you, son. Let us share in your happiness, okay? Let us get to know the different man you’ve become.”Cam nodded.“I meant it when I said you’re welcome at our house any time, Carolyn,” Domini said. “You too, Carson.”Carolyn squeezed their joined hands. “That means a lot. Cameron’s been back in Wyoming for a while but it took you to really bring him home to us. Thank you.”His dad just patted his shoulder and then Domini’s. Twice. Then he slipped his arm a
Keely McKay’s lucky cowgirl boots kicked up clouds of dust as she paced across the wooden plank floor.A mouse skittered in front of her and she jumped like a scalded cat.So much for maintaining nerves of steel.Well, at least she hadn’t shrieked like a scream queen from some cheesy slasher flick.In the last twenty-three minutes and forty-two seconds she’d chewed her bottom lip to the point she tasted blood beneath the cherry-flavored lip gloss. Not only that, her fingers hurt from continually cracking her knuckles. Frogs jumped in her stomach and were stuck in her throat. She’d clenched her jaw hard enough to make her earlobes sting. Given her erratic physical reactions, one would believe she was facing the hangman’s noose. An executioner’s blade. Or a blind date.She was meeting a man. A man she didn’t know. A man she’d never spoken to. A man who held her entire future in his hands.And that absolutely chapped her ass, sucked balls and blew donkey dick.No man ever had that much p